Death by Dozer – Another Senseless Death Due to the War on Drugs

Death by Bulldozer - A Senseless Killing in the War on Drugs from CannabisNet on Vimeo.

It almost sounded like an episode of that morbid show, “1000 ways to die” when a bulldozer killed Gregory Longenecker in Pennsylvania.

No, it’s no joke…he was run over by a bulldozer.

But for what? Was he a large scale drug trafficker? Did he pose any significant threat to the police or anything of the sorts?

Nope!

He was being chased by the cops for 10 cannabis plants grown on the Game Lands in Berks County. And not just chased, they even called a Helicopter to pursuit him.

What’s the Street Value of 10 Marijuana Plants?

Depending on the strain that was used, the techniques and so forth, the average yield of an outdoor cannabis plant is between 250 grams to 500 grams (under perfect conditions).

Taking the lowest margin, the 10 plants would have produced roughly 2.5 kg of cannabis. A pound in Reading, on average can go for about $2000. Totaling a rough estimated street value of $10,000 USD.

This is hardly a large-scale operation. The two men who were growing weed in the park weren’t violent or didn’t have a history of violence.

Yet the State police thought it to be adequate to get a police helicopter to help with the search. One of the growers were caught quite quickly, but Greg made a run for it.

Seeing that the area has a lot of underbrush, one of the troopers decided to pursuit the individual with a bulldozer…you know, because it’s the sensible thing to do.

How much did it cost the Police to Track down and Kill Gregory?

For the helicopter, the average cost per hour comes out to roughly $300 USD. The pursuit took about 3 hours. Once the state killed Gregory, they had to bring in ambulances, coroners, file paperwork and the rest.

A rough estimate of the total costs of the bust exceeds the potential street value of the cannabis. Which makes one wonder.

Was it okay for the cops to spend taxpayer money to pursuit a micro grow operation that resulted in the death of a non-violent individual?

The answer is clearly no.

They literally made absolutely no impact on the totality of the cannabis distribution networks within the area, but they did manage to kill someone with a bulldozer.

The Problem we Should be Focusing on

Cannabis is a drug that is being legalized all over the world. The approach to the War on Drugs not only has proven to be faulty and ineffective, it’s also reckless. When a law is more dangerous than a drug itself, the excuse of “public safety” no longer is valid.

Furthermore, in Pennsylvania growers usually are not charged with severe sentences. In 2016, Kevin Gooler was convicted for growing 112 marijuana plants behind his barn and was only sentenced to 30 days in jail and 6 months under house-arrest.

For the cops to have gone out of their way, bring in a helicopter and make a big deal over 10 plants is simply overkill.

It’s killing a flea with a cannon.

Now I know that some people will argue that Gregory broke the law and that’s why he was in that situation. However, the fact that something is legal doesn’t make it right. There was a time when slavery was legal…did that make it right?

Of course not. We can’t be living in legalism. There needs to be some common sense within law enforcement that would assess the threat level of any particular situation.

10 plants do not merit a police helicopter. In fact, all you had to do was chop down the plant and walk away. The two cultivators might have tried to grow again, but you would have cost them more money and time to make their efforts less-lucrative.

There was no need to brutally kill a man with a bulldozer over ten plants. It’s ridiculous to say the least.

What happened to the Trooper who Killed Gregory?

Administrative leave. A slap on the hand, as always when it comes to the Police killing non-violent individuals.

It’s situations like these that show us that the law is not really here to “protect” us, but rather to “keep us in check”.

If actual public safety was the primary concern of law enforcement and not just enforcing the law, Gregory would have been alive today.

As cannabis laws continue to change, we can only hope that these types of cases become less frequent. It’s time we have sensible drug laws on the books and proper police training. How many more lives need to be claimed by the drug war before we say, “enough is enough!”

Gregory is just another casualty of war. Taxpayer funded manslaughter that served absolutely no purpose in the larger scheme of things. Maybe it’s time to lay this 50+ year policy to rest…for good!